Confusion over rubbish pick-up days

PILING UP: Hamilton residents are confused about when to put their rubbish out.

Relevant offers

Hundreds of full rubbish bags and recycle bins lined part of River Rd in Hamilton yesterday as the confusion over collection days continued.

A leaflet sent to all residents by the Hamilton City Council aimed to clarify holiday rubbish and recycling service dates.

On the back, the holiday collections were summarised under the title "Key Point" which read: "Recycling and refuse collections will be one day later for the week following Christmas Day and New Year". But inside individual dates were itemised along with the actual collection day, many of which were as usual. This resulted in rubbish trucks having to make extra sweeps after residents missed their collection days as a result of the leaflet. Many residents thought collection would be a day later but this was not so, and rubbish bags were put out a day after the trucks had gone by. Council communications manager Monica Holt said the confusion stemmed from Boxing Day landing on a Saturday this year. She said that this week rubbish would be collected a day late.

Waste Management administration manager Mike Herbert said the company had made the extra sweeps after they received calls from people who missed their pick-up day.

"We generally make the effort to do an extra sweep of the city if we receive calls from people. It is an extra cost to us but we do it because we don't want rubbish bags lining the streets for days," he said.